# Comment on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJmN6vvftwg
# by @megalithhunter

I now regret awarding the Oscar for Ritual Hallucinations to that paper about the "bring-back-the-sun votive platters" last week.  This one tops it.

There are many things wrong with the paper.  One thing that must be noted is that only the lower part of the lower gallery (where the animal carvings are found) is usable as a shelter, as it is almost 1 meter tall and wide.   Judging by the drawings in the article, the rest of the lower gallery and the whole upper gallery are less than 50 cm tall, so it would not be possible to sit there.  

It is barely plausible that people sought that hole for the rainwater that collected in its pools, which would perhaps be available for some time into the dry season.   In that case, it is plausible that they  broke the edge of pool B3 to get more water into the more accessible pool B4.  But it does not seem that those galleries would have been a good shelter during storms.   The place would be wet due to percolating rainwater and pools, and cold and windy since the galleries are open at both ends.


The authors give no evidence that the lines that comprise the "map" were incised by humans.  On the contrary, they say "it is difficult or even impossible to discern any wear-marks of tools".  But grooves incised by humans have sharp edges and interrupt the smooth surface of the rock, as in the photo of the horse engraving in their own 2024 paper (DOI 10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104490); whereas the lines of the "map" have no sharp edges, and the spaces between them are smooth low rounded bulges.  Thus the "map" looks totally like the result of natural erosion highlighting lines along which the sandstone was slightly softer.  Check for instance www.stavislost.com/hikes/trail/yellow-rock-and-red-top-loop, search for the image labeled 'Gorgeous.' (with period).

Finally, it is surprising that the authors failed to note that the female whose pelvis is portrayed on the shelter's wall has, not one, but three genital "v" features, one of them oriented horizontally.  Undoubtedly those anatomical features must have made that woman into a highly respected priestess.   People must have come to that shelter from all over France in order to take part in her cult of the Hydrography of the Ecole Basin.